Catheter Tip Tracking for Dynamic Local Ultrasound Views
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current catheter-based surgical procedures lack a simple, effective, and minimally invasive means for providing image guidance, with existing solutions being complicated, burdensome, and lacking local imaging from the catheter tip that dynamically moves with the tip, and failing to offer the advantages of ultrasound for differentially imaging soft tissue.
Innovation Solution
A tracking and point-of-view-based imaging device configured for deriving the position and direction of a catheter's distal tip, performing coordinate system transformations, and forming a local view that moves with the tip while maintaining a fixed field of view, using real-time ultrasound imaging to provide both local and overall views for the surgeon.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple tracking devices are placed on the imaging catheter to avoid motor noise interference, then tracking reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple tracking devices into a single integrated tracking system that can simultaneously track multiple catheters. Instead of placing separate tracking devices on each imaging catheter, the system uses one or more external tracking devices that can detect and track multiple catheters concurrently, thereby reducing overall device complexity while maintaining tracking reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The tracking system is designed with universal functionality to track multiple different types of catheters (imaging catheters, ablation catheters, etc.) simultaneously using a single tracking infrastructure. This multi-functional approach eliminates the need for dedicated tracking devices for each catheter type, reducing complexity while ensuring reliable tracking across all procedures.
2Adaptability or versatility
If an imaging device is included at the catheter distal tip with all necessary functionality, then imaging capability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to the burden of controlling multiple functions at the tip
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the control functionality for imaging from the distal tip and relocates it to the proximal handle. The distal tip contains only the essential imaging sensor, while the handle houses the controls and processing equipment. This separation allows the surgeon to operate imaging controls remotely at the handle, significantly improving ease of operation while maintaining full imaging capability at the tip.
3Measurement precision
If real-time ultrasound imaging is used to provide local view from the catheter tip, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases due to additional imaging components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the ultrasound imaging system with the existing catheter structure and tracking system. The ultrasound transducer is integrated into the catheter tip, and the imaging system shares processing resources with the tracking system. This integration approach provides precise real-time local imaging from the catheter tip while minimizing the increase in overall device complexity through shared components and streamlined architecture.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the surgeon to switch between a 'landscape' and 'local' view, improving hand-eye coordination during ultrasound-assisted cardiac interventions by providing dynamic, real-time imaging that relieves the surgeon from operating imaging controls, allowing for precise manipulation of the catheter while maintaining a stable overall view.
Implementation Method 1
real-time ultrasound imaging
Data Source
AI summary
A tracking, and point-of-view-based imaging, device is configured for deriving a position of, and a direction from, a location at a distal tip of an elongated instrument, for performing coordinate system transformation in accordance with the position and direction, and for forming, from the location and based on a result of the transformation, a local view that moves with the tip. The device can keep, with the movement, a field of view of the local view fixed but the local view otherwise in synchrony with the position and the direction. From real-time ultrasound imaging, the local view and a more overall view that includes the tip but which does not move with said tip can be displayed. The distal tip can be that of a catheter and can be outfitted with a micromanipulator for surgery aided interactively by the combination of dynamic local and overall imaging.